American Popular Culture Commons^™

Interview Conducted By Ron Morrison With Freeman Kitchens In March 1978 (Fa 565), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Ron Morrison with Freeman Kitchens at Kitchens Groceries in Drake, Warren County, Kentucky in March 1978. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Interview Conducted By Margaret (Bulger) Kohn With Freeman Kitchens (Fa 566), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview conducted by Margaret (Bulger) Kohn with Freeman Kitchens in Drake, Kentucky on 22 September 1974. They discuss the store, Kitchens's phonograph collection and his association with the Carter Family (musical group).

Jameson, Jennifer Michelle, B. 1987 (Fa 567), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text paper (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 567. Paper: "A Brief History and Orientation to the Freeman Kitchens Collection" written by Jennifer Michelle Jameson for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Includes photos and an oral interview conducted by Jameson with Kitchens on 24 November 2010 in Drake, Kentucky.

Humphreys, George Gary, B. 1949 (Fa 564), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 564. Interview conducted by George Gary Humphreys with Lexington attorney and political memorabilia collector Julius Edward Rather. Rather discusses 20th century politicians he knew and how he got involved in collecting political memorabilia.

"This Murder Done": Misogyny, Femicide, And Modernity In 19th-Century Appalachian Murder Ballads, Christina Ruth Hastie

Masters Theses

This thesis contextualizes Appalachian murder ballads of the 19^th- and early 20^th-centuries through a close reading of the lyric texts. Using a research frame that draws from the musicological and feminist concepts of Diana Russell, Susan McClary, Norm Cohen, and Christopher Small, I reveal 19^th-century Appalachia as a patriarchal, modern, and highly codified society despite its popularized image as a culturally isolated and “backward” place. I use the ballads to demonstrate how music serves the greater cultural purpose of preserving and perpetuating social ideologies. Specifically, the murder ballads reveal layers of meaning regarding hegemonic …

Walking Box Ranch Custodianship Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending July 10, 2011, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• UNLV provides stewardship of Walking Box Ranch (WBR) by providing a caretaker who oversees the property, facilitating use of the property by researchers and educators, developing a use and research policy for the property, and coordinating these activities with BLM and in accordance with TNC restrictions.
• UNLV currently addresses security issues for the property through the presence of the caretaker and two Metro Officers who reside on the property in two recreational vehicles.
• UNLV met with Senator Reid representative on June 20 to provide information about project progress and to request the Senator’s support in obtaining further funding for the …

How Does The Fictional Tv Marriage Influence A Young Adult's Own Perceptions About Marriage?, Gina A. Svedsen

Student Work

This study explored the relationship between television influence and the young adult‘s perception of marriage. The participants were 178, college-aged males and females (median age 20) from a large Midwestern university. How much television participants watched and the types of programs they watched were examined. Participants were asked where they got their information about marriage and how they thought marriage was displayed on TV. Two hypotheses were tested -- H1: Female students are more likely than male students to use TV programs for ideas on what marriage is really like; H2: Television has a greater influence over female students than …

From Here To InFinnerty: Tony Soprano And The American Way, Terri Carney

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As fellow critics have pointed out in a myriad of published studies on the series, The Sopranos challenges the traditional gangster genre formula and brings the mob closer to all of us: Tony and his gang inhabit a recognizable world of Starbucks, suburbia, and SUVs. They discuss issues of the day, the same ones we discuss when we turn off the TV after the episode. In short, they inhabit a quotidian reality that is continuous with our own, and we are prevented from drawing the neat lines that allow us a comfortable remove from the horror of the “criminal world,” …

The Penetration Of Social Media In Governance,Political Reforms And Building Public Perception, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr

Ratnesh Dwivedi

Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. While we know that social media can play an important role in publicizing political activities such as protests, do we have evidence that such actions have led to substantive political change? Is it possible to develop a set of indicators to more effectively gauge the impact of new technologies and media on questions of political change? That social media can help coordinate large and discrete activities, such as protests and …

Watch What You Eat: From Self-Surveillance To Affective Eating, Constance Calice

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

How is it that Americans are so obsessed with nutrition and dieting and yet remain unhealthy? This project attempts to give a theoretically driven answer to this great paradox within the Western diet. Constance Calice analyzes the practice and rhetoric of dieting as a crystallization of a problematic relationship to food using a Foucauldian understanding of discipline. Using examples from the media, she illustrates the way in which outside forces effect our food choices and the power relationships formed in this exchange. To offer an alternative view to nutritionism she looks to the Local Food Movement and affect theory to …

Mercer, Fannie (Guy), 1855-1940 - Collector (Sc 176), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) Manuscripts Small Collection 176. Printed invitation, 15 June 1932, to Miss Sarah Leat for a July 4th ball at B. Vance's Hotel, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and newspaper clipping, 1929, concerning the invitation. Also holographic copy of lyrics of "Old Folks at Home."

Ragland, Mark S. (Fa 559), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 559. Paper: "Influence of Popular Culture on the Subject of Art," done by Mark S. Ragland as part of a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Includes an interview done by Ragland with artist and art educator Michael Taylor about the influence of popular culture on art, with particular emphasis on the pop art genre.

Salt, A Web-Based Ipad Magazine, Caitlin Dewey

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Abstract not included.

Towards A Theory Of Comic Book Adaptation, Colin Beineke

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Contemporary adaptation studies/theories have tended to focus singularly on the movement from the novel/short story to film – largely ignoring mediums such as the theater, music, visual art, video games, and the comic book. Such a limited view of adaptation has led to an underdeveloped and misplaced understanding of the adaptation process, which has in turn culminated in a convoluted perception of the products of artistic adaptation. The necessity of combating the consequences of these limited outlooks – particularly in the field of comics studies – is as vital as the difficulties are manifold. In opposition to this current stream …

Woman Or Warrior? How Believable Femininity Shapes Warrior Women, Jessica D. Mccall

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My dissertation is an exploration of how femininity is constructed in the characters of warrior women. I define and apply my theory of believable femininity: the notion that in order for characters gendered female to be accepted by an audience, specific textual markers must render them submissive to a dominating male figure. I examine the following warrior women at length: Britomart and Radigund from Spenser's The Faerie Queene; Christine de Pizan's treatment of Amazons in her Book of the City of Ladies and Hippolyta's specific portrayal by de Pizan in comparison to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and the …

The Failure Of The Free World: Anarchy In Uncle Tom’S Cabin, Andy Cerrone

Interdisciplinary Perspectives: a Graduate Student Research Showcase

Harriett Beecher Stowe is often identified as an advocate for Christianity, woman's suffrage, autonomy, and the abolishment of slavery. However, inviting the reader to view her work through an anarchist lens, her magnum opus—Uncle Tom’s Cabin— offers the reader the opportunity to reconstruct her politics with immense implication. Critics regard Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as a sermon devised with the intention to inflate the nation with the righteous spirit of God, offering to the reader the opportunity to partake in the message of her religious vision. While Stowe's absolute faith in her Christian profile of God is present, she invariably …

Two Faces Of Media While Covering Human Right Activities In India, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr

Ratnesh Dwivedi

The situation of human rights in India is a complex one, as a result of the country's large size and tremendous diversity, its status as a developing country and a sovereign, secular, democratic republic, and its history as a former colonial territory. The Constitution of India provides for Fundamental rights, which include freedom of religion. Clauses also provide for Freedom of Speech, as well as separation of executive and judiciary and freedom of movement within the country and abroad. In its report on human rights in India during 2010, Human Rights Watch stated India had "significant human rights problems". They …

Osborne, Theresa (Fa 513), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 513. Material collected by Theresa Osborne about an event called “Country Fair Day” held at the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum, Benham, Kentucky, featuring presentations about material culture. Also includes a paper focusing on local material culture and foodways and a small collection of interviews documenting recollections of Kentucky residents. This project was completed for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Johnson, Mackenzi (Fa 514), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 514. Collection consists of short interviews conducted by Mackenzi Johnson with Kenneth Nixon about folk customs and foodways, two of Johnson’s young cousins about children’s rhyming and clap games, an informal interview with Charita Swann, as well as discussions of Native American culture and life with Arigon Starr and Gay Wapecome. Also includes a performance by Arigon Starr at Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tennessee. This project was completed for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Misogyny And The Money, Leah Stevenson

2011 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

View Ms. Stevenson's Painting.

In the late 90's hip-hop started as a form of encouragement and empowerment for black people who struggled when growing up. Hip Hop gave black people a voice, where their opinions and challenges could be heard throughout the world. Today the genre of Hip-hop music has developed into a negative image that degrades women and negatively influences the younger black community. Think about some of the hip-hop music at the top of the charts; the songs that disrespect woman, and contains far too much explicit content that it has society desensitized. The pervasiveness of today' …